Customer Experience

Outside In: The Power Of Putting Customers At The Center Of Your Business

Kerry Bodine — Tue, 22 May 2012 12:02:32 +0000

Customer experience is, quite simply, how your customers perceive their interactions with your company. In Forrester's soon-to-publish book, Outside In, Harley Manning and I show that customer experience is a fundamental business driver and -- in an age when customers have access to vast amounts of data about your company and its competitors -- it's also the only sustainable source of competitive advantage.

In most industries, customer experience is the greatest untapped source of decreased costs. Fidelity Investments recently spent a modest $20,000 to fix a problem that made it difficult for customers to log into their accounts through the company's automated phone system. This single fix saves Fidelity $4 million a year by averting calls to customer service. And it's just one of more than 160 projects that came through Fidelity's experience improvement system in 2011. Together those projects account for more than $24 million in annual savings.

Customer experience also drives increased revenue. Several years ago, B2B technology reseller and service provider CDW added a question to the customer survey it fields: "What additional things would you like to talk to your sales team about?" The company funneled the answers to this new question to the appropriate account managers. The account managers, in turn, closed the loop by getting back to the customers with a simple message: You told us that you have a need, we'd like to offer you something that could meet that need. And guess what? Customers took the CDW sales reps up on it. This seemingly simple innovation drove more than $200 million in incremental revenue in just one year.

Announcing Outside In, The Latest Book From Forrester And The Topic Of Our Upcoming Forum In New York

Harley Manning — Tue, 22 May 2012 12:01:58 +0000

Since October, I've been heads down on a big project. We're all delighted that the project is now at a point where we can talk about it publicly.

It's Forrester's next book, titled Outside In: The Power of Putting Customers at the Center of Your Business. You'll be hearing a lot about it in the coming weeks, both from me and from my co-author Kerry Bodine. And if you want to see what the cover looks like, it's already online here and here.

Although the book won't be available to the general public until August 28th, attendees of our Customer Experience Forum at the end of June will get digital copies of the manuscript. They'll also hear keynote speeches from some of the people who appear in the book, like Kevin Peters, the president of Office Depot North America; Laura Evans, chief experience officer at The Washington Post; and Laurie Tucker, senior vice president of corporate marketing at FedEx.

If you'd like to get a preview of some of the concepts in the book, check out the video below -- and then stay tuned for more announcements!

Nine Ways To Reward Employees To Reinforce Customer-Centric Behaviors

Paul Hagen — Fri, 11 May 2012 20:57:18 +0000

The only way your company will differentiate based on customer experience is if the culture of your organization aligns closely with the brand promise to customers. Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh puts it in his blog post entitled "Your Culture Is Your Brand": "Advertising can only get your brand so far . . . So what's a company to do if you can't just buy your way into building the brand you want? In a word: culture. At Zappos, our belief is that if you get the culture right, most of the other stuff -- like great customer service, or building a great long-term brand, or passionate employees and customers -- will happen naturally on its own."

When Forrester looks at building a customer-focused culture, we believe firms need some precursors in place, such as a clear strategy and vision, metrics that reflect customer perceptions, and governance mechanisms that set standards and hold people accountable for changes.

Once those are in place, rewards systems are one powerful lever to keep employees focused on what's important. My colleague Belle Bocal and I identified nine ways that companies use reward systems to build a customer-centric culture.

Celebrate Target Behavior

Many companies make the mistake of trying to tie variable compensation (e.g., bonuses) to customer experience metrics too early. What many firms have learned is that the more informal recognition programs can be even more powerful at moving culture than the compensation metrics.

Customer Experience Programs Need To Move From Talk To Action

Megan Burns — Tue, 01 May 2012 16:00:00 +0000

Last week, I released an update to a very popular report titled "The State Of Customer Experience, 2012." The research is based on a survey of customer experience pros about their plans for this year. The data mirrored what we hear anecdotally when talking with clients every day and should help you answer the perennial question, "What's everyone else doing?" But beyond that, here are my big takeaways:

The Partner Role In Improving Customer Experience (CX)

Paul Hagen — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 07:00:00 +0000

Many different types of firms have channel partners or others that control a significant part of the actual experience with customers. Automobile companies have dealers, insurance and real estate firms have independent agents, software companies have value-added resellers (VARs), restaurants and hotels have franchises, and heavy equipment manufacturers have resellers. Even the brokers or financial advisors within financial services organizations can act in many ways like these external partners.

While companies may not have direct control over these partners, firms are waking up to the fact that there are ways to influence these organizations to provide a better customer experience. To ensure that partners enhance the customer experience (CX):

Boom! Wow, Wow, Wow, BOOM!! Does Your Customer Experience Have A Dramatic Arc?

Kerry Bodine — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 12:57:54 +0000

Think about your favorite action movie. Raiders Of The Lost Ark. The Matrix. Any James Bond flick. What do they have in common? A storyline that goes something like this: In the first few minutes, you're drawn into a short chase or adventure -- something that immediately gets your heart pounding. It builds up quickly and then resolves with a big boom! You're hooked. And at that point, the main narrative begins. Over the course of the next 90 minutes or so, the storyline twists and turns as the main characters fight off bands of aliens, spies, mummies, and the like. The action crescendos with a series of increasingly exciting events that make you say, "Wow . . . wow. . . WOW!" as you scoot to the edge of your seat. Finally the action-packed finale delivers one last thrilling and explosive BOOM!! As a movie-goer, you're left breathless.

You've no doubt experienced this type of storytelling countless times. And if you paid attention in literature or drama class, you might recognize this narrative structure as a classic dramatic arc dating back to Aristotle. But I bet you haven't thought about it in the context of your company's customer experience. Or, at least I hadn't -- not until I attended the Service Design Network conference last fall and attended a workshop led by Adam Lawrence of Work•Play•Experience, a design firm that helps companies design customer experiences using theatrical methods.

Voice Of The Customer Awards 2012 — Deadline Extended To Friday, April 6th!

Adele Sage — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 19:52:51 +0000

Good news for those of you requesting extensions: We heard you, and we're extending the deadline for Forrester's Voice Of The Customer Award submissions to Friday, April 6th at 5:00 p.m. ET.

While I have you, here are answers to some of the questions I've been getting about the awards:

I'm a vendor. Can I still apply? Yes -- but only if your submission is about your own VoC program. We don't accept submissions from vendors on behalf of their clients.
Does my company have to be headquartered in North America? No! This year we've gone global! We'll accept any submission, as long as it's written in English.
Will you honor confidentiality? Yes! No matter what, we'll publish the names of the 10 finalists and three winners. But any specifics that we want to publish beyond that, we'll fact-check with you first.
Do I have to be a Forrester client? No! We'd love to hear from you whether you're a client or not.
Does the cover page count toward the page limit? No, we're only asking you to limit the content of the submission to seven pages.
Can I get an extension? You already did! And no, we won't be offering any extensions beyond Friday, April 6th.

Get more details on the Forrester VOC Awards on our site.

Good luck!

Our Data Once Again Shows That Better Customer Experience Yields Millions In Revenue Benefit

Megan Burns — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 17:18:30 +0000

I just published Forrester's fourth annual report "The Business Impact Of Customer Experience, 2012" using updated data from the 2012 Customer Experience Index. Once again, the news is good for companies hoping to get a financial boost from their efforts to improve customer experience.

In the industries we modeled, the revenue benefits of a better customer experience range from $31 million for retailers to around $1.3 billion for hotels and wireless service providers.

What's behind these impressive numbers? It's pretty simple, really.

Interactive Design Agencies In Europe — Please Report Your Capabilities In Forrester's 2012 Online Survey

Jonathan Browne — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 20:23:56 +0000

Once again, I'm going to write an overview of the European interactive design agency market to help Forrester clients identify design agencies to help them with their projects in Europe. The report title will be "2012: Where To Get Help For Interactive Design Projects In Europe." Participants will receive a copy of the research and their details will be included in the report.

I would like to invite interactive design agencies in Europe to participate. Please complete the agency survey at the following location:

https://forrester.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_3ItaKu2lYfupm3G

The survey is designed to gather data from European firms that have significant experience in designing and developing digital experiences (web, mobile, etc.). Survey questions cover interactive agency size, practice areas, industry expertise, locations, and a range of costs for typical engagements. If you know any agencies that should be included in my report, please forward the survey link to them or show them this blog post.

Thank you!

P.S. If you want a preview of the survey, you can see all the questions on the following site:

https://forrester.qualtrics.com/CP/File.php?F=F_089Q1OJFXDCdXvK

UPDATE (10/May/2012): Survey deadline extension. This survey will be open until 15/May.

Three Ways To Use CXi Data To Inform Customer Experience Improvement Efforts

Megan Burns — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 15:51:50 +0000

In the two months since I published "The Customer Experience Index, 2012," the number of companies requesting a deeper look at the data has been quite high. Many have asked me to suggest ways to use the information that's available, so I thought I'd share the analyses I've found most interesting so far:

Customer Experience Index

Lessons Learned From 1,500 Website User Experience Reviews

Adele Sage — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 15:13:59 +0000

After more than 12 years of evaluating website user experience, Forrester reached a major milestone -- completing 1,500 Website User Experience Reviews. That's more than 100 reviews per year or more than 10 per month. Whew! We've been busy.

These reviews (using an expert/scenario/heuristic review methodology) span B2C and B2B sites, intranets, and employee portals across many industries and countries. What we do: We identify target users and attempt to accomplish realistic user goals for those users, and then we evaluate the experience on a set of 25 criteria graded across possible scores of -2 (severe failure), -1 (fail), +1 (pass), or +2 (best practice) for each criterion.

So what did we find?

The Organizations That Chief Customer Officers Oversee

Paul Hagen — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 00:43:51 +0000

In our continuing research on the emerging role of the chief customer officer (CCO), we recently looked at the kinds of authority their firms vest in them to drive change across the organization. This authority can affect the activities they do, the composition of the teams that report into them, and the budgets they control. For firms considering putting this kind of senior customer experience leader in place, Forrester has identified three archetypal models that characterize the most typical modes in which CCOs operate.

Advisory CCOs Play A Coaching Role

Companies that are early in their customer experience transformations are often reluctant to commit too many resources or cede control of core company processes to a CCO. These firms tend to place CCOs in an advisory or coaching role for peers with operational responsibilities, particularly if the company has had past success with centralized teams to drive change management efforts. CCOs running these teams have little control over decision-making and execution and instead derive authority through their expertise and personal reputation within their companies. A mandate from senior leadership in a business unit, the executive management team, or the CEO bolsters these CCOs' ability to change behaviors in other departments. These CCOs:

Enjoyable Experiences Are The First Step To Creating Emotional Connections With Customers

Megan Burns — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 18:37:26 +0000

The Holy Grail of customer experience for many firms goes beyond useful and easy to interactions that create an emotional connection with the customer. That's not easy to do, but step 1 is creating an experience that is at least enjoyable. Now, before you object . . . I'm not talking Disney-level enjoyable here -- just generally pleasant and maybe even a little fun. Two brands that proved it's possible with high scores on the CXi's "enjoyable" criteria are:

USAA (bank): 84%.
Courtyard by Marriott: 83%.

It's interesting to me that these two brands interact with customers very differently but have nearly identical scores. Most of USAA's interactions happen at arm's length through self-service channels. In my mind, those interactions can be harder to make enjoyable because they don't involve connecting with another human being. Talking to a nice person is inherently pleasant, but what makes a routine website or mobile experience enjoyable once any initial newness of a technology wears off?

I think part of USAA's success comes from constant innovation -- there's always something new to play around with. And the few interactions members do have with company employees stand out because of the firm's relentless focus on care and empathy in every contact. That gives the brand an overall sense of personality that is pleasant and enjoyable to work with even (maybe especially) under stressful conditions like the aftermath of a car accident.

It's Not Easy Being Easy

Megan Burns — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 21:59:56 +0000

Thanks for all your thoughtful responses to last week's post about why companies fail to meet customer needs. Clearly there's more work to be done in that department, but for now, I want to move on to the next Customer Experience Index (CXi) criteria: "easy." Many firms claim to be easy to do business with, but which ones got the highest rating from customers?

This year, USAA (bank) and Kohl's both earned a score of 92% in this category.

For USAA, there is definitely some overlap between its ability to identify latent customer needs and its level of easiness. For example, depositing a check via mobile phone makes the deposit process easier for everyone, not just the most geographically dispersed parts of the customer base. Strong customer understanding also led to creation of the Auto Circle experience, which is designed to make the entire car buying process easier for customers, not just the parts that a financial institution like USAA would typically have been involved in.

Forrester’s Voice Of The Customer Awards 2012 — Nomination Period Begins March 5th

Adele Sage — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 13:29:20 +0000

It's that time of year again. We're already in the midst of planning our annual Customer Experience Forum, and now we're gearing up to collect and evaluate nominations for our Voice Of The Customer Awards -- which we'll present at the Forum.

If you're new to the awards, here's some background: Forrester's annual Voice Of The Customer Awards recognize organizations that excel in collecting, analyzing, and acting on feedback from their customers, incorporating customer insights into everyday decisions. We conduct the awards for three basic reasons: 1) to emphasize the importance of voice of the customer (VoC) programs; 2) to celebrate organizations that are leading the way; and 3) to highlight best practices.

If you (or, if you're a vendor, your clients) have a strong VoC program, we encourage you to participate. It's free and it offers a great opportunity to earn some solid PR while sharing your wisdom with other customer experience pros. Also, we only reveal the names of the finalists and winners, so the potential downside is limited.

You can find all of the information you need on our VoC Award home page. The 2012 nomination form will become available there on March 5^th. In the meantime, you can review this year's timeline, get answers to FAQs, and check out information about past winners.

Customer Experience

Outside In: The Power Of Putting Customers At The Center Of Your Business

Announcing Outside In, The Latest Book From Forrester And The Topic Of Our Upcoming Forum In New York

Categories:

Nine Ways To Reward Employees To Reinforce Customer-Centric Behaviors

Celebrate Target Behavior

Categories:

Customer Experience Programs Need To Move From Talk To Action

Categories:

The Partner Role In Improving Customer Experience (CX)

Categories:

Boom! Wow, Wow, Wow, BOOM!! Does Your Customer Experience Have A Dramatic Arc?

Voice Of The Customer Awards 2012 — Deadline Extended To Friday, April 6th!

Our Data Once Again Shows That Better Customer Experience Yields Millions In Revenue Benefit

Categories:

Interactive Design Agencies In Europe — Please Report Your Capabilities In Forrester's 2012 Online Survey

Categories:

Three Ways To Use CXi Data To Inform Customer Experience Improvement Efforts

Categories:

Lessons Learned From 1,500 Website User Experience Reviews

Categories:

The Organizations That Chief Customer Officers Oversee

Categories:

Enjoyable Experiences Are The First Step To Creating Emotional Connections With Customers

Categories:

It's Not Easy Being Easy

Categories:

Forrester’s Voice Of The Customer Awards 2012 — Nomination Period Begins March 5th

Categories: